I keep my blog as a personal record of what I'm up to, which might be seen as working towards "An elegant sufficiency, content, retirement, rural quiet, friendship, books, ease and alternate labour, useful life". I'm certainly not there yet. There is quite some way to go!

Nov 11 and then

my friend Mary must have read my last blog post almost immediately, because she not only came up with the excellent suggestion that I settle down with a good book but even suggested the title.

Now, I respect Mary’s advice so went straight to my Kindle, downloaded the book and got right into it. Good choice!

The other “cure” was a great evening at WI with a lovely performance of Dylan Thomas’ writings, accompanied by piano music. Though it would have been great to have sat in a comfy chair with a glass of something in hand, on this occasion the village hall had to do! The warmth of the voice, the soothing music and the magic of that atmospheric writing worked wonders – we lingered longer than usual over our coffee and long after the chairs had been put back, the hall locked and everything secured, we stood in the exceptionally mild evening air chatting, not really wanting to break the spell.

Get a flavour of the evening here. We might not have had the joy of hearing Richard Burton speak, but you know, the effect was just the same.